The Late Show Just Made 1,200 Personalized 'Happy Birthday' Greetings

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The Late Show Just Made 1,200 Personalized 'Happy Birthday' Greetings

Stephen Colbert and his crew at The Late Show would like to sing "Happy Birthday" to you. (And you. And you!) Now, thanks to a federal judge's decision and the power of YouTube, they can.

You may have heard that "Happy Birthday to You" is now in the public domain after a judge ruled in September that none of the entities that have been collecting royalties have a valid copyright claim to the song. It was a big reversal after decades of copyright claims—and it opened the door for Colbert and his staff to make birthday video greetings for all of us.

To celebrate bandleader Jon Batiste's birthday, Colbert enlisted the help of legendary vocalist Darlene Love to join Batiste and Stay Human to sing the traditional birthday greeting. But during the recording, Love covered her mouth and didn't sing any particular name during the "Happy birthday dear..." part of the song. The Late Show then created a separate YouTube channel for the video and uploaded the same clip 1,200 times, each with a different name subbed in during the appropriate line.

The best part? The names are incredibly diverse, running the gamut of male and female names from Shelby and Daniel to Abdullah and Alejandra, Tarik and Lori to Yanis and Maximilian.

In case your name wasn’t one of the 1,200 created for the site for this launch, there’s a link to a Google form to suggest others. But the statement from The Late Show accompanying each video cautions, "We may or not make it. You don’t always get what you want for your birthday."